How much does John Siglar suck at being DE GOP Chair? – Part II
Celia Cohen wants to blame Christine O’Donnell, because she hates O’Donnell with a white hot hatred. I don’t get the connection between O’Donnell and the pitiful recruiting numbers Sig put up, but Celia is nice enough to collect all the numbers for us.
There is one essential a party must have to win an election. It is called a “candidate.”
Apparently this is a foreign concept to the Delaware Republicans. They have so many holes on their legislative ballot, they have all but put the General Assembly out of reach for themselves. (snip)
Check out the House of Representatives, where all 41 seats are up for election. The Republicans have failed to field candidates in 19 districts, putting the Democrats within two seats of the magic number of 21 for the majority before a vote is cast.
It is more of the same in the Senate, where all 21 seats are up for election because of redistricting. Republican candidates are nowhere to be found in eight districts, leaving the Democrats three seats shy of the magic number of 11 for the majority.
Conclusion: Sig sucks. Granted, his “product” is about as attractive as a “do it yourself head bashing bat” (handle covered in shit) but still… what a bust.
And, to run for governor, he found a candidate whose business is focused on anonymous mail boxes.
How appropriate!
Blaming the GOP poor showing here on COD just seems too easy. A party with a decent bench shouldn’t be taking its marbles home until the whackos vacate the premises. A party with a decent bench should be able to take the field and send their bush leaguers back to the bush league. This is the result of a long-term leadership problem in the DE GOP, not just because of COD.
When life gives you lemons you sometimes have to make lemonade. But when you don’t even have lemons, what can you do?
I don’t know Sigler, and he may indeed suck, but he doesn’t have much to work with either. The lack of credible candidates for the GOP may be indicative that there are few Republicans who are qualified and are not whack jobs. Remember the GOP brand is in decline. It may be that the most qualified people are the ones who left the party (or were forced out for being so-called RINOs) to become independents. After the purge there aren’t very many talented and responsible folks left. Look at the candidates in Sussex County. Almost none of the GOP candidates are credible, with the possible exception of Ernie Lopez.
Ernie Lopez is indeed the GOP’s one bright spot – but thanks to Sig’s general uselessness Lopez might not even make it to November.
The other issue in DE is that the GOP is not doing much to recruit good candidates–even David Anderson has acknowledged this.
I know of one potential candidate in NCC who would have been credible for a Rep seat that the GOP is not contesting. Don’t think he would have won, but he would have been able to run a solid race, and would have paid his dues for the future. He met with Sigler et al and told them he wanted them to waive the filing fee and actively help him with fundraising. They told him they’d think about the filing fee (and eventually, i believe, agreed to waive it), but that they couldn’t help him with fundraising, and he’d need to put at least $20-30K in the pot from his own sources before they’d get strongly behind him.
Note he wasn’t asking for them to put up the money, only to help him approach the usual sources, since it was already mid-July and his opponent had a war chest already filled.
More to the point, however, is that they should at least be fielding “paper” candidates in every single district race, or people will simply get out of the habit of pulling their lever, and–as jason relentless says–the Democratic primary will become the election.
That the GOP sucks is also why the Libertarians are able to field over two dozen candidates, and in several districts we have the only candidates opposing incumbent Dems.
Tom Kovach *could* have been a bright spot, if he had stuck to NCCo. It doesn’t matter much who wins the D primary — Kovach would have had a genuine fighting chance at NCCo Exec this year.
It is rare for me to split ticket vote, but I would have here. And I’m not alone in this one.
I agree completely on Kovach; what he is doing running a statewide race is beyond me. I have heard he was asked to “take one for the team” so that Rose Izzo did not become the nominee by default, but there frankly is no GOP team to take one for anymore.
I think in career terms Tom has seriously damaged his own brand.
http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=44748 reports a Republican will be filing to run for State Rep in the 23rd RD.
I am 100% down with what Cassandra and Steve Newton said about Kovach. A very odd choice for a guy who appeared to have decent political instincts.
At least we’re not talking about Mike Protack this time around.
Agreed on your assessment of Kovach. He’s a smart guy, with far more decency than either Gordon or Clark. If he had run for county exec, he would have had a solid chance of winning, because he would have drawn independents and many D’s who are tired of Clark’s tone-deafness and Gordon’s arrongance.
I have heard he was asked to “take one for the team”
I’ve heard that this was very much Kovach’s choice. He had multiple options (that the GOP would have backed him on) and decided to go for the brass ring.
On the other hand, one wonders why Charlie Copeland sat this round out. Taking one for the team doesn’t seem important to him, so I wonder if this wasn’t a signal to the rest of the GOP as well.
Blaming Christine O’Donnell is fun, but she isn’t the problem – she’s the symptom of a political party that’s lost its mind.
As far as the potential candidate Steve references…
Note he wasn’t asking for them to put up the money, only to help him approach the usual sources, since it was already mid-July and his opponent had a war chest already filled.
…I’m beginning think that approaching the usual sources wasn’t possible for Siglar. Looks to me like that group has closed their checkbooks… and we all know that the Tea Party doesn’t have the money to back up their rhetoric. Tea Party rhetoric + no money = no viable candidates.
What sensible Delaware Republican would run for office just to get trashed by the nut job teabaggers that have overtaken the GOP? Think about what they did to Castle and Rollins, who would want to expose their family to that kind of evil and hatred? Tom Ross had to ship his family out of the state because of teabag death threats. Castle was accused of cheating on his (hot) wife with a man. Rollins was called “immoral.” Even moderate GOPers who weren’t running for office in 2010 were publicly trashed. Evan Q went after a moderate GOPer on WDEL several times for his support of Castle, until the moderate feared for his job. Fuck that. And fuck Charlie Copeland. The collapse of the Delaware GOP has his caviar encrusted, right wing fringe finger prints all over it.
Has Kovach ever won a general election?
No. Just specials.
It was startling to switch over to Rachel Maddow last night and see and hear a loop of Christine’s tricky ‘is Mike Castle is gay? ‘routine.
I also know someone who was asked to consider running for local rep, but wouldn’t do it. He based it on, among other things, not being able to reconcile having to identify being on the same side of the ticket of the EQ party. Money wasn’t an issue – not that he has much of it, but that wouldn’t have stopped him – it was that he is a pragmatic moderate and he knew he couldn’t be honest if he ran as an R at this time. They can say all they want about not being the reason moderates left, but reality has been a difficult issue for them lately.
On a different note, did someone subliminally mention bacon here? I can’t otherwise figure out why I was drawn in today.
Correct, but he’s only been in one general election so far and that wasn’t a decisive loss in a decidely D-registered district (2010). He lost by approx 550 in a district with a D-edge of over 3000 at the time. He’s got the support, but needs to be a little more keen on how to use it.
smitty, you may have caught me looking over bacon recipes for the Friday Open Thread early. Was thinking about posting up Elvis Donuts — Banana Baked Donuts with Peanut Butter and Bacon. Whatcha’ think?
Well, thank you…thankyouverymuch. Sounds dangerously tempting. I think my doctor called with a lipitor prescription as I was reading that.
I’ve got a republican friend who is disgusted by all the uncontested seats. His career won’t allow for him to run. He always says, “wait until Pete (Schwartzkopf) retires or moves up. Watch to see how many republicans come out of the woodwork to run for the seat then.”
lol, he gets really riled up about it, so I bring it up from time to time.
Don’t understand the comments about the moderates. They are the ones running the show in NCC and the reason most Rs switched affiliation or stay home altogether. They need to field conservative candidates not half ass liberals claiming to be moderate. If I want a liberal I will vote D not look for the generic version from the GOP. There are a couple of strong candidates in Sher and one or two house races in NCC (1’st and 19’th I believe?) Other than those may as well stay home.
…and the reality problem proves itself, as if called by a dog whistle.
Moderates are still in charge just as the sun rises in the west. The people remaining as “R” aren’t moderates, aside from the few that don’t want to switch to “D” nor disenfranchise themselves in primaries by switching to ‘other’. Possibly, they might be moderate compared to non-Eastern Sussex, but compared to what is a true moderate, these folk ain’t that! Plus, if you don’t pass the litmus test for the party of EQ, you’re not welcome. Outside of friendships being at stake, the intolerance of pragmatic-moderates still rages.
Why hold on to such falsehoods other than to provide an excuse for getting crushed in elections? Look at that ticket. There are very few who can be considered a moderate in any sense of the term. The rest, where there aren’t holes in the ballot, all two of them (sarcasm), are nowhere near being moderates. Come on, accept the reality that the pendulum has swung hard-right. You did your deed. You purged the party. Just accept it and move on. Why is that always the hardest step?
I disagree with your definition of a moderate. I can see where you confuse the term. You are using the extreme left of the Ds who are politically involved in this state (not the average citizen who is more of an I but registers D by default) as a standard to guide what qualities make a moderate.
All of the above is based on your false assumption that Ds and Rs are right and left. In fact they are both far left with anarchy to the right and a constitutional republic in the center. What do you think?
I think your meds have worn off.
So, both major parties are left-of-center, therefore, making today’s R party true moderates, buffering the American masses from the anarchy that lurks further to the right? Er…no, I don’t buy that one bit.
Yes, I do take D to the left, moderates to the center, and R to the right. That is the scope of my argument and it’s the generally accepted argument that’s been out there for…oh…longer than I’ve been alive. I also won’t justify the intolerant treatment of moderates by today’s activist R’s by calling their position “constitutional republic”. That’s just another placating label to make it feel better while bashing from within…except, there is no more within, as that horse has already left that barn.
I would feel the same way when confronted with a practical opinion. However I don’t find much of those on here.
I don’t know why your post is so pointed. Are you not used to someone making you think and challenging you?
Both parties are left. They want to grow government, only in different ways. The current GOP is not far right. They are still the moderates. Don’t blur Sussex in with the rest of the Party. And left, center and right did mean something different before you were born; they meant exactly what i stated earlier. That has been the definition up until the progressive era. Read the letters the founders wrote and the Federalist Papers.
Tell you what, when you have a practical opinion we can talk. For now, you sound like you are sitting in a college dorm room smoking funny cigarettes creating phrases like “In fact they are both far left with anarchy to the right and a constitutional republic in the center.”
That pretty much says it all. It’s not all Sussex, but there is a mindset from many down there that the R contingent there is going to gallop in on their white horses and save us all from ourselves, probably via some law of conscience, but save us, nonetheless. They don’t want to be aligned with anyone from New Castle, and pretty soon Kent, as that is the slowly-growing chant.
There is no arguing with you. Your initial concept is already wrong where you put all mainstream American politics to the left of center. That’s just not supportable. To be a Beck-ite (my opinion) or a disciple of Colley, doesn’t default you to some so-called centrist-constitutional-republic, so you can therefore call everyone else some form of a leftist. You’re the one resetting the spectrum.
but… but… The Federalist Papers!
@liberalgeek: no dorm room, my law office downtown. If you are able to comprehend the Federalist Papers I would recommend them to you.
@rsmitty: I don’t deny the spectrum we are dealing with today, just saying that it isn’t the full spectrum. Don’t listen to Beck and have never heard of Colley, do you recommend them? I’m getting this information from studying political and social philosophy from pre-Greek to present. Where you say my initial concept is wrong I know that you are factually incorrect. It is typical of someone with a socialist leaning to frame their argument solely in the present rather than compare it to history. This also happens to be an underlying theme in liberal arguments.
This may also blur your mind but the term liberal used to mean the opposite of what Democrats stand for today.
Most of the “moderates” I know (which includes me I think) are folks who value fiscal responsibility; are socially conscious; and pragmatic. They also believe in personal responsbility but recognize that government has legitimate functions to provide for defense and promote the general welfare. I don’t know about the rest of Delaware but that does not describe the Rs in Western Sussex. On the spectrum of left to right, moderates are probably center-right, depending on the issue. If the measures were based on social policy they are fairly left of center. On fiscal policy they are probably right of center. Still, catergorizing them is difficult because they are more than the sum of their stances.
Dave: that is exactly what a moderate is in Delaware. However the moderates running the Party are not that.
Then they are not moderates running the party. Of course I have seen no moderate Rs in Sussex County. Maybe upstate is different. Down here moderates are either independents or Ds.
NCC runs the party. Look at the top leadership and contributors. A great majority is from NCC and they are more liberal than moderates. It’s the truth. the disarray is embarrassing and weakens the position of practical people such as you and me. I hope you get involved Dave if you are not already.
The R’s don’t have a bench; the D’s don’t either.
Of course, in individual races… I mean Matt Denn is so more skilled as a politician & human being than Sher I’m surprised she has the nerve to be on the ballot. I figure she must be delusional. But look at who is running for the D’s, if your stomach is strong enough. “None of the above” is the far and away leader in the NCC exec race, and we’ll wind UP with one of those toads. Everyone can name 5 more D’s who shouldn’t be running for anything, yet are doing pretty well. It’ll come back & bite us, that we don’t have a better filter. A filing fee is clearly not enough. We need, at the very least, a breathalyzer and an IQ test, for EITHER party.
Hoping the opposition dies is all the GOP has left in terms of strategy.
The thing is, jason, a “bench” requires some development. Young people aren’t thinking about running for office… they’re paying off college loans through lawn-mowing. Middle aged people aren’t doing it… they are building whatever nest egg they can. Older folks aren’t doing it, the buy in is too steep for a D. So who is there? We can’t, as a state party, do everything about the vast economic forces holding good people out of public life. But we’d better do a little hunting around for candidates we can be excited about. Because the drift rightward needs restraint, and we’re the only ones to do it.
I’m young and have been busting my ass trying to build a coalition of both parties that focus on the issues. Younger people aren’t partisan, for the most part, so it is possible. The bad part is they’ve left the room out of distrust of government; they’d rather see the system fail and start from scratch. the Founders warned us that when the people ceased educating themselves and let their gaurd down the Republic would fail. That is what is happening in my opinion. I don’t criticize you based on D and R, I judge your opinion on whether you support liberty or not. A discussion on the definition of liberty is too long for a forum but if anyone is interested I recommend the book “the constitution of liberty” by F A Hayek where it examines the concept of liberty and progress.
DEvoter302. Your man is Gary Johnson. The party you seek is the Libertarian.
Don’t dismiss him out of hand because of their last miserable choice for a presidential candidate. (Hint: his name rhymed with Bar)….
Find something you “don’t like” about him, and if you do, come back here, because I’m curious what it is.
(Point being that a lot of people really liked Ron Paul’s positions here on this page, until he got goofy over the Federal Reserve being eradicated… Gary doesn’t carry that one.
Seriously, if up for the challenge, report back… I’m only mentioning it because from the clues you’ve scattered over the field of your responses, this might be a perfect match for what a you are looking for.
I am familiar with Gary Johnson and will most likely vote for him. I would have also voted for Newt. Don’t kill me for that one.
It is very upsetting we have don’t have real, honorable campaign. One has given up and the other is busy eating each other. I am personally saddened by some of the democratic primary in fighting and negativity. The GOP could have a real chance, if they stopped playing party politics and talked to the people. I can’t vote for them for fear of how much control their extreme side has. Do I want financial responsibility, yes – not stubborn refusal to work with others.